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but i digress. [ male announcer ] we understand. you need presentations done right. and right now save 20% on all online printing purchases. visit fedex.com/print. >> it's that time of year again. the government wants to tax us and this year's tax year promises to be historic. >> tea parties are expected to protest nationwide froe testing what they say are big government's reckless spending spree. is there more passion than ever before when it comes to tax? >> i think there is. taxes are expected to go up. and by the institutionalization much health care which is going to make everybody's lifestyle more expensive and make everybody pay more taxes in

order to pay for it and the suggestion of a value added tax. whatever happened to that promise that nobody's taxes would go up if they made under dlar 123$250,000. it would raise everyone's taxes and the government doesn't care. the government used taxpayers as a bottomless pit. >> leave it to you to tell us in our notes that the constitution originally prohibited the feds from collecting income taxes. oh, how times have changed! >> yes, they have. in 1913, the 16th amendment was enacted that allowed the federal government to tax our income. you know what the initial tax rate was? 2%. for people earning more than $10,000 which is equivalent of quarter of million today.

>> how do you equate this to the mafia? >> your money or your life. you pay for your existence oochl we'll pay attention to all those protests on the big day which is thursday. what's coming occupy the radio show? >> people protest more than april 15th because your taxes are taken out of your paycheck every day. governor chris christie about whom a labor union leader in new jersey said that the mens of the union should pray that he would die, he will be with us and pat toomie. >> and america's back, is america back or is someone cheerleading for a very friendly administration? >> congratulations on your book. >> thanks, judge. if you do the crime, it could be on your license for the end of time. why one state wants drug offenders to have labels on

their driver's licenses. >> some are too scared to report it. we're not scared. i am a little. gretchen isn't.

>> we're back at 53 minutes after the hour. a lawmaker's proposal to tackle drug abuse is stirring major controversy in the state of louisiana. they're proposing that the driver's license of two time felons bear a label that says drug offender if they've been convicted of a drug offense but is this the scarlet letter for addicts, former addicts and former dealers who have done their time? our guest this morning. louisiana representative ricky hardy who proposed the legislation and on the other side, dr. ken roy who runs the addiction recovery resources of new orleans and is a recovering addict himself.

representative hardy, is this a good law or does this affect people's civil rights in a bad way? people are trying to clean up their act. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> no, sir. house bill 139, what it does is deal with drug dealers who have been convicted of second offenses, subsequently offenses far dealing drugs. however, the elderly senior citizen could not enjoy the golden years in the community because of drugs activity, illegal drug activity that's taking place. i live in the real world. i live in the hood. i don't live in a gated community. i see that every day. what's embarrassing when you see folks that have crack addiction, walking around the streets. how about the people that the drug offenders have violated when they have destroyed their community, destroyed families. bring about burglaries, robberies, it goes on and on.

the list continues. we have to do something to eradicate that type of behavior. >> let me begin with dr. ken roy it is about that. representative hardy is concerned about the people that have heeby jeebys in the hood. is that a good thing, a bad thing for our society? >> well, i certainly appreciate the representative attempting to address the drug problem. i think it's more important to address that problem on the demand side and to provide treatment for people who have addiction. the law itself seems to be prejudicial and discriminatory and it seems to serve no useful purpose. the -- the idea that a felon with a criminal history, a violent criminal history or a weapons related criminal history would be less likely to harm a

police officer or to disrupt their society than a drug offender seems a little discriminatory to me. i think we should support the recovery of people who have -- >> let me ask you -- >> have the consequences of their behavior. >> thank you, doc. let me ask the representative because we're running out of time. when a police officer, a state trooper stops someone in baton rouge or lafayette, new orleans and they see drug offender stamped, what should that tell them about that driver and how should they respond? we have 30 seconds. >> it would bring high alert to the police officer. this legislation was supported by state and local law enforce:we have to do something to eradicate the drug problems. we could begin to rehabilitate. >> thank you both for getting up early with us this morning. appreciate you coming in. let us know what happens with this law. good to see you both. >> thank you. he led the surge in iraq, now the general is leaving the country. we're going to get reaction from

two former joints chief of staff. now conan o'brien, where is he winding up and what kind of big dough is he getting?

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>> good morning, everyone. hope you're having a great tuesday. april 13, 2010. let me tell you what's happening right now. president obama promised not to raise taxes on the middle class. some new figures show me that's exactly who will get hit for new taxes to pay for health care. we'll crunch down the numbers for you and break out the calculato calculators oochlt he is the most wanted terrorist. how did this radical cleric get a college education on our -- on our dime? the u.s. taxpayers gave him $20,000. that story coming your way. >> then oprah overexposed. a brand new book dishes the dirt on the queen of talk. juicy details about her family

and her love life coming up. our slogan comes from craig in south dakota. i can sleep on a cross country flight. but i never snooze to the news that's right. >> hi there, this is fuzzy bear. >> and this is kermit the frog. >> and you're watching "fox & friends" on fox. >> and friends? >> and they are wise guys and they are puppets. moppets, excuse me. they're not real. i apologize. when we were talking about that story on the -- when we were talking about your story, for example, the oprah story, it is kitty kelly, and we don't know a lot of her sources. the frank sinatra stories and the books she wrote but it's just amazing how many people are afraid to talk about this book because of the power of oprah. >> afraid to read it, it's almost -- >> i got my grimy hands on it yesterday. kitty kelly will be joining us

tomorrow. if you're interested in what she has to say about oprah, you don't want to miss this interview. we'll give you a couple of snipets coming up here. >> did you say hey, now? >> hey, now. >> get your game on. we're going to get our game on right now. we have some headlines. when it comes to filling retiring justice john paul stevens' seat, the white house wants everyone to know, secretary of state hillary clinton is not under consideration. instead, the president is said to be seriously reviewing 10 candidates as potential nominees but reportedly none considered a frontrunner right now. the list includes homeland security secretary janet napolitano. stevens is set to step down this summer. voters heading to the polls today in florida for a special election. republican ed lynch running against democrat ted deutch in the 19th congressional district.

he is counting on health care legislation to give him a shot at the seat. the congressman will replace wexler who resigned last year to work for mideast peace. new video released featuring an american jihady in afghanistan. he appears in a new german taliban video believed to be documenting a military operation against an afghan army base. the middle east media research institute provided the video. it's not known when or where it was filmed. ann stern, one of the nation's most powerful and polarizing union leaders is preparing to step down. that's according to union officials. president of the service international union and is one of president obama's cloesest political allies. his union spent $60 million to help obama win the presidency and millions more on house and senate races around the country. stern still hasn't personally considered his nomination and

what he'll be doing next more importantly. conan o'brien is expected to head back to late night cable tv, that is. in a surprise move, o'brien will join tbs for a one hour show that's going to air monday through thursday. kevin eubanks announces he's leaving jay leno. he has no firm plans for the future. his late day will be may 28th. i think he announced that a while back, actually. i thought i remembered that. >> yeah, he did. he announced that earlier. i thought there was rumor but now he has to find somebody else? the band. we'll see if somebody else has to do that. it's a lot of fake laughing. >> a lot of applicants i'm sure. >> you never get a full song in. let's talk about the middle-class tax cuts that the tax hikes that aren't going to happen. we're told they weren't going to happen. is that indeed the case? >> peter johnson jr. has spent a fair amount of time in the last year to go through health care reform and the bill. what do you make?

>> the joint committee on taxation is saying and they're considered the score keeper in congress as much as the c.b.o. is that based on the change in terms of the deductability of medical expenses going from 7 1/2% to 10% that that will mean a $3.9 billion tax increase for the people who the president said would not be affected by tax increases as a result of health care or anything else. senate democrats including a spokesman for max balkus have said that's misleading but at the same time, they haven't denied this very disturbing number. >> all right, so this isn't so difficult for some of the americans to bring down this health care reform bill. nobody gets it. here's what you're saying, peter, you're saying that taxpayers can currently deduct medical expenses in excess of 7.5% of their adjusted gross

income. >> so it will be raised to 10%. so you've got to expend 10% of your gross income before you can write it off. and -- >> that will garner $3.9 billion by 2019 and the people who will be paying it are people who are making under $200,000 which was a campaign promise of president obama that that would not happen. >> correct. it will affect about 15 million people according to the joint committee on taxation. >> i'll tell you what, the administration is putting out positive numbers when it comes to the deficit. they say the federal deficit is running significantly lower than it was last year. for the first half of this year, 2010, 8%, down 8% over the same period a year allego. they contribute it to more people are able to pay their taxes. let's talk about health care costs and the health care bill. what is the deal with the --

with this -- how much is this really going to cost us? mit romney was asked about that because he came up and led the charge with mass care when he was governor of massachusetts that ensured everybody and charged everybody was supposed to listen to traffic in the emergency rooms. it didn't happen. here's mit romney on the chances of the prices going down. >> no one believes it. no one believes that he's going to reduce health care costs in america. she says it. she doesn't believe it. no one says the taxes are going to go down. no one believes the budget is going to get balanced with this plan. federal government taking power away from the states. we saw them at the state level and we did it without raising taxes. that's the key. >> they did at the state level as opposed to a federal operation and that in massachusetts, they did not raise taxes. however, it has not been a slam dunk in massachusetts. and this could be problematic for mit romney, i think, as he

moves forward in running for president depending on the whole federal health care reform thing pans out. >> they need federal dollars to balance the budget in massachusetts, again, they needed billions of dollars again. fw governor patrick asked for money. >> he claims that the one that ended up in massachusetts was not all of his plan. that it was changed before it actually became law. >> he claims there are differences are obama care and still an impressive candidate but there's a lot of different issues to talk about. >> let's talk about what's -- about your income. according to another study, your income fell, america's income fell cumulatively 3.2% since president obama took office. now, we know the worst recession since the great depression but so did president bush take over after a recession and our income fell as a country .4% so this is significant. 3.2%. >> and if you look at california, the numbers are

worse. that's 3.5% that income has dropped. and in new york, it's dropped 3.8%. and keep in mind that these are also two states in dire need of financial resources, you know, to keep their own states afloat and you have at the same time the income of the people who live there going down. >> so 47 states have been affected and there have been modest gains and i guess three other states, west virginia, maine and maryland, so that's not a -- it's not a happy number that we're reporting on today. >> right, here's another story unrelated to taxes but related to the war on terror. he is probably one of the most wanted terrorists out there today. he's american born. he's a cleric who had direct contact with at least two of the hijackers when he was over in san diego. and also, was a spiritual resource for major hasan who killed all those people at fort

hood and is paralyzed at this time awaiting charges on murder, now he is over in yemen gathering and growing more al-qaida members and functioning as their spiritual leader. we want to kill him but first, we scold him? >> yeah, by the way, yemen says he's not a terrorist. they're not going to help us in trying to find him and prosecute him at all. did you say he was american born? because apparently, he considers himself foreign born when it came to ripping off you, the taxpayer to go to college, here in america. $20,000 he ripped off from you to get the special funding. he checked the box for foreign born. where did he end up? at colorado state university and now, some people are saying hey, man, we want that money back. we want that $20,000 back. >> apparently, he was actually born in new mexico. but held himself out as a foreign student. >> he lied! >> absolutely lied. but based upon his alleged

connection to the christmas day jet bombing, based upon his alleged connection to the fort hood attack and the people who are accused in those events, would we anticipate anything else? >> he's already on the assassination list so let's really pick up the pace if we can. hopefully he has some money on him. >> what if we recover his body? we'd like to kill him. we've shelved that problem with the c.i.a. killing american people. he's the exception. how unbelievable is it if he's from new mexico, he has to pay for more schooling. if he's from america, he gets $20,000 towards an engineering degree? >> no kidding. >> how wrong is that fundamentally? >> we talk about taxation. if you want to look at taxation, look at the fox web site because they have a calculator on there about what these taxes are costing you. you type your income and you see what it's actually costing you as an american based on your annual income. what about this program

generally? what are we paying generally to educate foreign students in this country? hold yourself out as a foreign student, say you're not born in the united states. and here's $20,000? >> you got to wonder if people are still slipping through the loopholes as he apparently did. >> we have interns around here working hard to try to pay back student loans. >> right, maybe even overworking. >> let's not go down that path again. >> let's talk about this because this is big breaking news this morning. he's the top dog in iraq and he's now going to be heading home. the general who led the successful surge, may be up for another gig. we get reaction from two former joint chiefs of staff live next. >> that will be incredible. lots of people have gripes about flying these days. who will give you the fewest problems and where is your luggage going to end up? we'll tell you what airlines to hop on. (announcer) we're in the energy business.

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>> the top commander in iraq for the past few years has been general ray ordeno and now he's leaving iraq, being rotated out of that country in september at the same time all u.s. combat operations are supposed to end. we're supposed to be down to 50,000 troops. this is part of normal rotation. will this have any effect on the stability of the region? let's ask two decorated gentlemen, former joint chiefs of staff. welcome to both of you. what a perfect time to talk to you. that's to get your impression. first with you. ice leaving. what's the story behind the story? is there one? >> well, you know, ray has been in country for over three years now and i think he's done an absolutely superb job. we as a nation are indebted to him for his service to the country and for the leadership that he's provided for our great

men and women in uniform. and i can't say enough good about what ray has done for our armed forces and for our nation in the very demanding, a very tough job but he's superb and, of course, he's being replaced about general lord alston. he's an absolutely outstanding officer. he led one of the largest forces that the u.s. army has. our contingency corps. a project force. he knows exactly what he's doing. he's a well schooled, well grounded individual and so i just can't say enough good about lloyd. >> general myers, you know, some of the books i read, you know the truth say that general ordeno came in and he was a little too aggressive some might have said. and that he learned on the job to change his approach and he became the outstanding general to one of the best ever presiding over general petraus?

>> i absolutely do. when he led the fourth division, he did terrific work. it was his folks who found saddam hussein. i watched that from my perch as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and later brought ray to be the assistant to the chairman and we worked together for a couple of years before he went on to bigger fame and fortune here as our leader in iraq. he's done a terrific job on both assignments in iraq. >> i want to move on. we have a little time and a lot of different things we can do, the whole segment on that. i want to talk about karzai. so last two years, this administration has been running him down saying he's not a reliable partner. hope for the other guy to win the election and now they've changed course. is it because general shelton, we really have no plan b in afghanistan if karzai stiff arms us? we really have no other option? >> i think we have to remember, they were working with another nation and working with an

individual that's the elected leader of that nation and so it's -- it's not up to us, the u.s. to have an alternate plan b when it comes to who is going to be the leader. i think what we have to be prepared to do is help karzai in any way that we can to help do the nation building piece of the job that's in front of us right now so that in fact we can support him so that he can in fact be successful as a leader. >> general myers, is -- if karzai says forget about taking down kandahar in june, do we not do that operation? >> well, i think general shelton is exactly right. this is a sovereign nation. they have elected leadership. president karzai is part of that leadership. by the way, he had some competition in the last election so do others, of course, that could lead but the people picked karzai and i think whatever we do and you mentioned kandahar, has to be done in conjunction with the afghan government. it has to be seen as legitimate by the people. if the afghan government doesn't

lend its approval and isn't part of the planning then it's probably not going to be very successful one way or the other. my guess is clearly karzai is under a lot of pressure right now. >> right. >> some of that is natural. we have folks over there that are being injured and dying for that country. and so we want them to do their part and i think that's what the pressure is all about. >> general myers and general shelton, we got to do this again. it's been a privilege having you on. thanks for the service you gave to the country and the information you gave our audience. have a great day. >> thanks, brian. >> meanwhile, coming up straight ahead, calling on all con artists. new health care bill was supposed to help end fraud and abuse. a former health and human services secretary says it does the exact opposite. is the president's so-called science czar sending the wrong message to students? he told him, we can't be number one in science and technology forever. why not? (announcer) it's one of the best mid size sports sedans in the world

if it's not there are over 5 international awards we'd bter give back. the jaguar xf. the critically acclaimed result of a very different way of thinking. this country definitely needs to focus on other ways to get energy.

we should be looking closer to home. we have oil on our shores. natural gas can be a part of the solution. i think we need to work on wind resources. they ought to be carefully mapping every conceivable alternative. there is an endless opportunity right here.

>> glad you're up. time for your news by the numbers. first, 18, the government spends $65 billion more than it took in last month. oops. next, 20%, that's how many divorce petitions filed with the british company cited facebook as one of the reasons for the split. finally, 4 feet, 3 inches, the maximum height you can be to work at china's dwarf theme park called kingdom of the little people. guests can enjoy singing and dancing by dwarfs. we call them little people. >> all right. brian, thank you. calling all con artists. the president promised that it would cut $900 billion in waste and abuse in the system. the rest of the bill actually provides more opportunities for fraud. >> a former health and human services secretary served under

president george bush. good morning. how are you? >> good morning. thank for the promotion. i was the deputy secretary. >> deputy secretary. ok, i'm glad you accepted the promotion. i apologize. what is this about? we were told that there was going to be reduction in waste and fraud and abuse and it was going to solve all of our problems. are we going to have that reduction or are there more problems on the horizon? >> there are more problems on the horizon. what president obama did is talk about waste, fraud and abuse. it's one that we need to address. unfortunately, when most americans think of waste, fraud and abuse, they're thinking of the $60 to $100 billion in actual fraud that takes place each year. president obama is talking about medicare advantage subsidies about $130 billion over 10 years. those are subsidies that go to a legitimate service so they're different things. >> one of things that you point out is you believe so many more people will be covered, that the opportunity for fraud actually increases.

>> well, it's not just the fact that they're covered but the way they're covered, putting 16 million more people into medicaid is a problem. there's a lot of fraud in that system and by putting a trillion dollars more into the system and relying heavily on the third party payment system where people don't directly pay for their costs as a doctor, that system is right for fraud because people don't see the actual costs and don't have an incentive to cut down on fraud. >> what is actually going to be done in terms of cutting down on fraud? what are they actually doing apart from reducing medicare advantage as that's somehow a part of the fraud? >> right, it's a bulk of the savings that president obama is talking about. there's other steps in the bill but they're relatively minor. senator coburn says we're addressing 1% of overall fraud in this bill. there's stats like increasing fund due to pay for fraud and increasing the waiting time so you can go after fraudulent

payments more quickly. so there are some steps but overall by putting more reliance on the system. >> not enough. this is one of the reasons, mr. troy, that american people, many of them were so angry about this health care reform bill because it was not attacking the issue. i mean, for goodness sakes, if we've been wasting this much money with fraud for all the years, wouldn't that be the first thing that you would go after if you're talking about a bill that's going to cost trillions of dollars? >> absolutely. $60 to $100 billion a year for 10 years. that's a lot of money to play with to start improving health care for the country. >> former deputy human services secretary under george w. bush, always great to see you. thank you so much. >> thanks a lot. it's almost unchartered territory for the dow. it's starring at above the 11,000 mark today for the first time in a year and a half. where will we go from here? we'll talk the predict opredict maven of economics, stuart

varney will be with us. getting ready to fly away for summer vacation? find out what airlines are being rated the best right now. >> it's everything you ever wanted to know about oprah. one of the most powerful women in the world! how she grew up. who she dated, everything. all the juicy details coming up. [ male announcer ] there are 16 chevy models with a five star frontal crash safety rating. that's peace of mind for every size family. chevy... may the best car win.

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>> all right. it's time to dish the dirt. >> what are you talking about? >> there's this new tell all book coming out by kitty kelly on anticipaoprah winfrey. it's not a thin little book, no, no, it's about 600 pages. she interviewed 800 some people. oprah was not on the list of interviewees. she had no part in this book and this is the past history of kitty kelly in doing this book. >> i don't think the subjects usually cooperate because there's nothing good in them. she's out to get the stuff that's not been told. for example, about her past relationships, what could possibly be in there about her past relationships? >> one of the things that she apparently dated john tesh. you know him from "entertainment tonight" and now he has a radio gig and he has not responded to the book. here's what i don't like about this these kind of books.

john tesh has confirmed his past relationship with winfrey when they were in their 20's. some 30 and 40 years ago when they lived in nashville. >> according to kitty kelly's new book, oprah doesn't have the best relationship with her mother. allegedly her mom has to call oprah's assistant to get through to oprah. >> she's busy. >> who makes everyone around her sign confidentiality agreements. >> the thing is what is new really in here? one of the things that struck me and i have no idea if it's true or not is apparently oprah does not know the identity of her biological father. that to me is very interesting because she does so many shows reuniting families and putting people together and you would think that would be a desire of hers. >> and peter johnson is really the billy bush of the show loves the entertainment aspect. >> i don't understand. >> am i related to the president? >> you just love the entertainment, the whole -- >> i do. it's kind of like a festival being here. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> since there's no romantic

relationship with stedman, it's nothing. they're just buddies or -- >> long time companion. >> and apparently, he's also a republican. maybe that's why. they're not in a relationship. kitty kelly will be on the show tomorrow if you want to catch that. she'll be with us at 7:45 a.m. >> it gets a little more descriptive and graphic in their book. >> let's talk about flying. the choices that you should make are the ones most reliable. they're not going to lose your luggage. they're going to be on time, perhaps. if you want all those things, here is the listing. they've done a survey and the number one airline is the hawaiian airline so if you go to hawaii and you want to get there on time, you want to get luxury, go hawaii. >> i think it's because anyone who is going to hawaii is already in a good frame of mind. >> not complaining. >> they're not going to dis an airline when they're going on a vacation. >> number three, air tran. number five, southwest in terms

of who is best in the air. six is continental and we end with express jet. american is 9. > >> yeah. >> on-time performance, hawaii air gets the top billing on that. >> number one on mishandled baggage and denials, jet blue. i've never been denied on jet blue. >> i thought that would be north wrest. they didn't let particular people on the plane for the way they were dressed. >> and if there was oprah air on there, i don't think kitty kelly would be boarding that. >> very good time. >> on southwest, i was bumped off because they overbooked. you can't lock in a seat. >> you're a star. you should not be overbooked or underbooked. >> i should not be underbooked. >> you should be allowed wherever you want to go. that's why i'm here. i want to be near you. >> so does stu varney. >> in this instance, you should

have been in the airport. that's where i stood as the plane took off without me. let's talk about the news. >> let's do that. some new names are emerging for possible replacements for john paul stevens. one prominent woman not among them, kelly wright has the latest from washington. you know, kelly, when i interviewed this one prominent woman about a year and a half ago, i asked her on a scale of 1 to 10, the chances she would end up on the supreme court. you know what she said? >> what did she say? >> zero. so that's proving to be true today. who is she? >> i can see her saying that as well. that's secretary of state hillary clinton and gretchen, you get right to the core of what's going on here in washington. one of the burning questions right now is who will president obama choose to replace retiring supreme court justice john paul stevens? republican senator orrin hatch of utah created quite a stir when he mentioned that secretary of state hillary clinton may be a possible replacement for stevens, the senator complimenting clinton saying he

thinks she's done a good job as secretary of state so the whole notion of clinton being named a supreme court justice was quickly knocked down by the white house. >> we appreciate senator hatch's addition. i think the president has identified in secretary clinton a job he thinks she's doing, a capacity in which she's doing a wonderful job and the president is going to keep her as his secretary of state. >> all right, so now that it's clear that president obama does not intend to pick his secretary of state hillary clinton, we continue with the name game as gibbs calls it for the next few weeks, many names will emerge in terms of who the president will select to become the newest member of the highest court in the land. on this short list, some of the same names in the mix before sonja sotemeyer was nominated, seventh circuit court judge, diane wood, solicitor general elana kegan.

pro life groups support either of them. considered a moderate, perhaps the most successful name to conservatives. also, another member of the president's cabinet, janet napoliatno is mentioned as a possible choice along with the michigan governor. there's a look at them. elizabeth warren, a harvard law school professor being named and then there's the possibility of a montana federal appellate court judge, sydney thomas who may be under consideration as well. back to you. >> all right. we know what we're going to be doing this summer, debating whoever that nominee is. it should be fun. appreciate it. a michigan judge set to hold a second court hearing in the case of the alleged underwear bomber, the pretrial hearing will deal with scheduling issues among the upcoming trial. he pled not guilty to attempted murder, charges of 200 -- attempting to murder 290 people on board that detroit-bound plane on christmas day. he faces life in prison if convicted and evidently is cooperating. >> thanks brian.

>> former producer of the hit show "survivor" remains free in mexico today. he was named the main suspect in his wife monica's death last week. investigators are waiting for forensic tests before deciding whether to arrest him on murder charges. monica's body was found last week in a sewer at a resort in cancun. the family was said to be on vacation. >> a top house republican says the national highway safety traffic administration is withholding documents about the toyota investigation. daryl issa says republicans should get the same documents that are given to the committee democratic chairman. the agency says the documents have trade secrets and are available only to chairmen. and issa says that it's favoring members of one political party over the other and fails to grasp the importance of meaningful, congressional oversight. >> a canadian escape artist made a great escape from a barrel of beer. he was submerged into the barrel

of beer that contained 240 liters of lebatz. he was chained and locked shut. it took him 2 1/2 minutes. he finally emerged realizing it wasn't what he requested. he says he doesn't drink and he says escapes are his natural high. if you're having leblatz, you might smell a lot like him. he drank his way out of it? >> i thought he drank out of the beer and he was able to get out. >> talking about drinking beer, janice dean comes to mind. she has the weather. >> oh, my gosh. why would you want to escape from beer? that's what i don't understand. >> that's a great point. >> good point. >> i think i dated that guy actually. let's move on to weather, shall we? we do have a system across the rockies that's bringing some mountain snow as well as some showers and thunderstorms over this region. we could actually see some severe weather later on today. and a frontal boundary directly across the great lakes rather

into the northeast, also could see some showers and pop-up thunderstorms. one to two inches in a short period of time possible here. detroit, cleveland, pittsburgh all seeing some wet weather. there's a storm across the rockies as it continues to move north and eastward, we'll see the severe weather for today across the dakotas through nebraska with a threat of large hail. have some damaging winds, maybe isolated tornadoes. watch for that. there's the precipitation accumulation. 6 to 12 inches for the northern rockies and a little bit of rain for the central and northern plains. there are your highs today. big ridge of high pressure bringing beautiful conditions across the southern and central plains and the southeast although the allergies really, really bad this time of year, unfortunately. back to you guys. back to my beer! >> oh. >> thank you very much. >> good luck. i think these weather hits will be less and less substantive as we go along. >> hiccup! >> thank you, janice. ok, the dow briefly crossed the

11,000 mark friday the first time in more than 18 months. is this a sign things are turning around? or is it just a temporary high? >> all right. stuart varny is here to explain. should we be celebrating? >> yeah. look, the dow has had a fabulous run in the past year. if you got a 401k, you're up about 70% on the number that's in stocks. here's the truth of it. wall street could care less about anything other than profit. if america's corporations continue to record big time profits, the dow will continue to go up. and right now, corporations are very profitable indeed. >> where was mayor bloomberg in washington, d.c. saying don't slaughter our cash cow and don't strangle us with too much federal regulation. you know some things have to change, stuart, but how much? >> who knows? >> wall street is now bloomberg's backyard and new york city and new york state derive an awful lot of money from wall street and the financial industry in lower manhattan. now, there is a proposal to

regulate it. to lower its profits. >> because we don't want to go through what we went through two years ago ooch. >> there's all of that. and tax the wealthy executives much that's killing the golden goose so they're opposed to this whereas a lot of the rest of the country wants to crack down on wall street. >> taxes, tell us about taxes. this is tax week. >> what do you want to know? >> i don't know. what do you think? i mean, profits are high. unemployment is high. >> rasmussen reports did a poll. 66% of americans think that they are taxed too much. 66%. the level of taxation is going to be an issue in november. and the tea party people are going to make a big deal out of it on april 15th, big rally in washington, d.c. >> don't you forget. >> he's the best. >> thank, stu. president obama's so-called science czar with discurrentlying words frdiscuro

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>> white house science advisor or czar john holdren is predicting that america's downfall. he's telling a group of students that the u.s. can't expect to be number one forever. >> other countrys are getting ahead in science and technology. other countrys are getting better and increases their capability to improve their economies and this was all including to make the world a better and safer place. we can't expect to be number one in everything indefinitely. >> so this the right or wrong message for our kids? joining us is robert knight,

author of "radical rulers, the white house elite are pushing america towards socialism." i guess we get where you're coming from, right, mr. knight? >> well, this is joe the plumber revisited only instead of it spreading the wealth around, we're talking about spreading america's science and technology around as if it just sort of happened here and the whole world should have as much of it as we do since it's fair. america got us to the incredible position of wealth and technology because of the unique culture, the fact that we have a rule of law that's stable, a commitment to entrepreneurism, traditional values that honor wealth creation and for holdren to tell these students, you know your nation's time has passed, essentially and it's good -- it's actually good that the world is catching up to us is not the best message for students, i wouldn't think. >> no kidding. especially since the recent studies all show that american students are declining in math

and science, right? >> they are. and some of the other nations in europe are increasing and certainly india and china are gaining rapidly. i'm not sure it's a good thing that china is catching up to us in technology since they're building the world's largest military but, you know, if you look at john holdren's remarks the other day, they don't sound that bad, you know. we do want other nations to do well. we're not selfish but if you put them in the context of things he said over the last few years, you don't have to go back to the 70's when he had some really wacky stuff. he called america the stingiest nation, the meanest nation saying we don't give enough of ourselves. he called the climate change skeptics a fringe group. he said that in the "new york times." this is before climate gate erupted. he's been for wonderful government, for transferring power from america to an international system. and i think he's telling these kids that would be a good thing. >> very interesting perspective.

robert knight, thank you very much for being our guest today. >> thank you, gretchen. >> we told you the dow opening above 11,000 today. the first time in 18 months and companies seem to be hiring again so are these signs of an amazing american comeback?

> >> it's 53 minutes after the hour. one of things we can all agree upon is america is resilient. we have a long, great history of bouncing back in this country and with the dow hitting more than 11,000 for the first time in 18 months, auto sales are up and the resurging dollar. is this success long term or is it just a flash in the pan? peter, one day you'll ask me questions like that but our former economic advisor to president reagan, co-author of

"return to prosperity." i love the title. are we enroute to prosperity? >> we can be. right now we're going in the wrong direction, the political will, you have to get somebody who believes in growth. you can't love jobs and hate the job creators. and that's exactly what they're doing. >> the front cover of "newsweek" this week shows that america -- show it, brian, it says that america is back. so is that true or not? because in the commercial, you were telling us something interesting about what's going to happen with taxes and how you believe that maybe this cover will not be true, then. >> it's a great year this year. i mean, the stock market is way up, the jobs are coming back. you're getting that sharp bounceback and the relief is enormous but still, you've got 9.7% unemployment rate. that's enormous. the stock market is way below in real terms where it was in 2000. >> are we out of recession? >> no, we're not. but we're starting to come back

nicely. >> how do we stay out of the recession and grow economically? >> if you tax people who work and pay people who don't work, don't surprised if you get a lot of people not working of course that's not rocket science. >> they'll raise taxes dramatically on january 1, 2011. if you know they're going to raise taxes next year, what do you do this year? you accelerate all the income you can into this year to earn it with the lower tax rate. that will make 2010 look better than it otherwise should and make 2011 look worse. i'm very worried about when we cross the tax boundary. >> you're talking about capital gains and here is a hair brain one. dividend tax 15% to 39%? >> almost 40%. and it's amazing. there are lots of other taxes that you could look at, too, you've got obamacare. are they going to get anything through in cap and trade when you look at some of the add ons on medical pay benefits? >> and you talk about the fear of interest rates rising which

is -- it's inevitable but let's end positive. tell me some of the things that can put us on turbo speed to make this recovery rapid and permanent. >> right now, there's not much here. we should have a low rate flat tax and get rid of all federal taxes and have two low rate federal taxes. one on business net sales and one on personal unadjusted gross income. we should have a federal, state and local tax amnesty tax income that would raise $600 billion. we should sell these industries we've nationalized and raise the money and reduce the debt that way. if you look at it, what are we doing with all that money in fort knox. have you ever seen it? >> nope. >> neither have i. it's sitting there for 78 years now. >> thank you so much. one of the foremost thinkers, thanks for being here. >> thank you very much. it's a pleasure. >> one of the nation's most politically powerful and polarizing union leaders is apparently preparing to step down now. it's this guy right there. andy stern heading out. >> and conan o'brien stuns the experts. we'll tell you where he's taking his cast of characters on his

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>> gretchen: good tuesday morning, april 13, 2010. thank you for sharing your time with us. he's the top dog in iraq and now he's going to be heading home. general who led the successful surge may be up for another gig, so who will be taking his place in iraq? >> he may run for president in 2012, but mitt romney already on the attack says president obama should learn a lesson for him that universal health care does not work. >> no one believes that. no one believes he's actually going to reduce health care costs in america. >> nancy pelosi did. >> she doesn't believe it. she says it. no one believes the taxes will go down. >> more from the factor straight ahead. and she's not talking. the mother who sent her adopted 7-year-old back to russia. her lawyer challenging prosecutors to press charges. do they have a case and is that

good legal advice? our slogan comes from mike in wisconsin. your report, great news and stuff, fair and balanced without all the fluff. i know you'll be late if you don't stop at 8:00 o'clock, but three hours just isn't enough. >> this is john tesh. you're watching "fox & friends." >> brian: that was not eastern time. we stop at 9:00 o'clock. right there is yankee stadium where the new york yankees will be getting their rings today because it is opening day and the second year of that stadium. but gretchen and peter, as you know, the thing that's different is the stadium next to it. they actually are taking it down, it's virtually down now. >> gretchen: they already did? >> brian: i saw the picture this morning. i was supposed to go over the weekend. >> brian: they need the parking. >> brian: but it will change the wind because you got a big building blocking the wind. so they'll have to get used to this stadium. >> more homeruns or less?

>> more in the new stadium. >> brian: i grew up with weather vanes everywhere. >> gretchen: you ponder that and give us weather wind history. i'll do a couple headlines. a fox news alert, military investigators are expected to arrive today at the scene of a u.s. navy plane crash in georgia. three crew members were killed in the crash. at this hour, authorities still looking for a fourth person who was believed to be on board. no word on what caused the plane to go down. fuel from the plane started a brush fire that burned at least ten acres before being put out. you're looking at new video into the fox news room now. this is of the body of poland's first lady. she arrived in warsaw this morning. her body now lying in state at the capitol. the first lady, president, and top polish officials were killed in a plane crash. the president's coffin will be

available for public viewing today. investigators believe human error is to blame for the crash. a delegation was on its way to attend a memorial for thousands of military executed by stalin police. the top american commander in iraq is going to leave his post by the end of the summer shortly after the draw down of u.s. troops. pentagon sources say part of a normal rotation and he did not ask to leave and the military source tells us that he was originally supposed to leave this spring, but asked specifically to stay on by president obama. the general was the principal architect of the troop surge. former massachusetts governor mitt romney blasting the president's health care plan. romney, who passed a comprehensive health care law as massachusetts governor, appeared on "the o'reilly factor" last night and says the plan is a bundle of lies.

>> no one believes that. no one believes that he's actually going to reduce health care costs in america. >> nancy pelosi did. >> she doesn't believe it. she says it. no one believes the taxes are going to go down. no one believes the budget is going to get balanced with this health care plan. it's going to be a huge entitlement which is the federal government taking power away from the state. we saw that problem at the state level. we did it without raising taxes. that's the key. >> gretchen: this weekend, romney won the straw poll for the 2012 republican presidential race at the southern republican leadership conference without even attending the conference. andy stern, one of the most powerful and polarizing union leaders is preparing to step down. that is according to union officials this morning. stern is president of the service employees international union and is one of president obama's closest political allies. his union spent $60 million to help obama win the presidency and millions more on house and senate races all around the country. mr. stern has swelled his union rank with aggressive, hard driving tactics, but his

management stale wrangled many who say he ignored the interest of many. he hasn't confirmed. frankie valli suing six former cast members of the broadway hit jersey boys for what he says is copyright infringement. ♪ . >> gretchen: he says they steal many things. management hasn't commented yet. those are your headlines. that's one great show, if you ever happen to new york city or vegas where it's also showing, it might be traveling around the country. >> frankie valli was here to kick it off and hasn't been back. let's talk about a case that's really going to have widespread ramification. a 7-year-old adopted from russia was sent back by that family to

russia and caused that country to freeze all adoptions between our two nations and a lot of people are saying what was so wrong with that child that this woman couldn't figure it out and this family said, return to sender? >> gretchen: the other thing is we haven't heard about a father in this case. i don't know if there was a father present in this case or if this woman adopted this child on her own. but apparently they might have to charge her with a crime to get her to talk because right now, she's not giving any explanation. one person who is talking is the sheriff who said this. >> it appears to me that what we're going to have to do at this point is continue the investigation, try to dig into and get enough evidence to bring charges and that's the only way we're going to get to talk to her. >> there are legal issues. was there an actual formal adoption in russia? was there permission granted by

the adoption agency or by the home where the child came from that they would say we're going to break the contract and we will allow you to return the child back to russia? we know that the mother allegedly put a note with the child, paid someone $200 that she found on the internet to meet the child. the child was under the care of flight attendants who were very maternal, based on my experience, but that's not the new mother. so there is two issues. one is legal issue, which the authorities have not determined and secondly, there is a moral issue. once you take a child and adopt a child, you don't know the health history of that child, you don't know the psychiatric history of that child. you're taking the child to love that child and then to say, well, this child has too many problem, i don't want this child, that creates issues in my mind. >> brian: we do have an idea of the medical background, don't

you? >> gretchen: i'm not sure exactly, it depends if it was a legal adoption. i don't know how much information this family had. but one thing that crossed my mind when this start the surfacing was that we've done countless stories here on the show about how you can just drop off your kids now even in the u.s. >> we're talk being that before the show yesterday, that for infants, for babies, instead of people engaging in homicide and that does happen, instead of people abandoning a child in the street, drop a child at a fire station or police station without any repercussions. >> gretchen: you can drop off your teen-agers now in some states. i believe nevada is one of them. we've done many heart wrenching stories about parents who cannot control their teen-agers anymore, and they have other mental or issues and they drop their kids off. you live in a society where that is -- >> at first blush it really seems represencible that you would bring a child here and

then return it to toys r us. >> brian: right now all the future adoptions from russia are in doubt. we got to tell you about a despicable character and it gets uglier. this al wacky, this cleric who has been linked to the underwear bomber, linked with the fort hood shooter, and has been linked to two 9-11 hijackers. federal authorities were looking at him and tracking this guy and now he's in yemen influencing more would be people to become terrorists working for al-qaeda. it gets worse. it turns out he got a scholarship to go to college. >> who paid for it. >> gretchen: you and i. everyone else here. taxpayers paid for it. we all knew he graduated from colorado state university with a degree in engineering, but what we're just finding out now is that apparently when he applied for a certain scholarship, he checked the box that he was a foreigner. not that he was telling truth, which was that he was born in the united states in new mexico. so by checking that foreign box,

that made him eligible for the $20,000 scholarship of which apparently lying on his visa application allowed him to have us pay for his college education. >> very interesting story. katherine on fox news.com details he was born in las cruces, new mexico and held himself out to be a foreign student in order to get this $20,000 bonanza and apparently over time, some other folks that have had nefarious interests in our country have done the same thing. >> brian: khalid shaikh mohammed went to school here. a lot of terrorists went to flight school using our system. now this guy sat here in washington, d.c. preaching hate, manufacturing terrorists and going to college to learn engineering on our dime. >> not only financial assistance, a scholarship. >> brian: ten minutes after the top of the hour. straight ahead, a lot more show. as tax day approach, the tea party is planning massive rallies. why does the rest of the media

barely cover the party's efforts? new numbers released showing just how unbalanced their coverage is. >> gretchen: he was buried by an avalanche. he survived thanks to his cell phone. you are not going to believe the 911 call that saved his life.

>> welcome back to "fox & friends." the tea party movement has drawn hundreds of thousands of people rallies around the country. tomorrow, two days until tax day, they're stepping up the effort even more. so why is the rest of the media seemingly ignoring their efforts over the past year? the media research center studied the coverage of the movement and their findings show

they have not been cast in a positive light, especially compared to past opposition movements. our guest this morning is rich noise, director of media analysis at the media research center. good morning, rich. >> good morning, how are you? >> is the tea party suffering as a result of the media coverage? have they been treated in a fair way based upon your review of all of the coverage? >> well, i don't think the tea party is suffering, but clearly the media double standard is apparent. you go back to liberal marches like the million man march in 1995, all the anchors came to washington and set up shop to run full coverage that day. this million mom march that was some of the people don't remember anymore. that was in 2000. that had 41 stories in advance of their march, interviews with the host setting it up. the tea party has virtually no coverage at all last year. 19 stories on the big broadcast

networks, in the morning, in the evening, weekend shows, sunday morning shows and nightline, 19 stories total and a lot of those, as the year grew on, became disparaging, calling the participants racist, haters, saying everything they were doing was nasty and angry. very, very different set of standards. >> how does that compare to so-called opposition movements in the past in terms of the million man march and things of that nature? did the tea party get the amount of coverage that other folks have gotten in the past? >> oh, far, far less coverage. i mean, the million man march on just the three evening newscasts got 21 stories. peter jennings gave all but 75 seconds of that entire broadcast over to it when that happened in 1995. the best day, the tea party ever got was the april 15th 2009 coverage when it got one story

per network. three stories total. nothing at all like that. we had just a couple years ago, this big immigration rights march in 2006. you had nbc set up anchors all across, their reporters all across the country, six were covering this for one newscast. nothing at all like that for the tea party. not this boosting of the cause. the cause of the tea party. >> as our final question, how do you account for this unfair disparity in coverage? why is the tea party being either ignored or smeared? why? >> it's a cause. when the networks want to boost a cause, they give it publicity, it's oxygen, it helps them. here this was like a prairie fire that first they tried to suffocate from lack of coverage, then they tried to stomp on it by disparaging the participatants, casting them as some fringe movement or extreme movement. this is clearly a cause the

networks do not feel they want to promote with their coverage. >> well, apparently maybe the next study to do, rich, is how a movement becomes successful as the tea party movement has without the big broadcast media coverage. thank you for being here and thanks for the statistical analysis. we'll see you next time. >> thanks a lot. >> listen, it's a disturbing trend, parents need to know about. kids at one school fighting each other. then they post the videos on you tube and could it all be for 15 second the of fame and conan o'brien is back to late night, but he is taking his show where? to basic cable. can he even manage to compete with leno and letterman on his new channel? is he going to knock john stewart out of the box? who is here? the cub scouts, boy scouts, they're taking over our control room!

give it to us! all right. i'm there. thank you, sir. (bugle playing)

>> gretchen: just about 22 minutes past the hour. couple headlines for you on tuesday. a big shock for students in a new york city area school when an entire auditorium wall came down. no one was hurt. classes canceled for the rest of the week. discovery astronauts wrapping up their third space walk. they successfully installed an ammonia tank for cooling. flight controllers immediately activated it. discovery leaves the station saturday and then after that, there are only three more shuttle missions remaining. >> 22 minutes after the hour. conan o'brien heading back to late night tv, except now he's ditching the networks and stage ago comeback on basic cable.

reportedly making his return in november on tbs. was this a good career move for him or will he get lost in the line - up? joining us is veteran image, consultant and media strategist ken freeman. good morning. >> good morning. >> is he going to be successful and does he have a chance to knock off colbert and john stewart? >> i don't think he has a shot at knocking off colbert and john stewart, but i think he has a chance to be successful. certainly a chance to be vindicated. america, we all know loves a comeback story. this is a comeback story. >> gretchen: one of the things he'll joke a lot about is his former boss, nbc. ironically, that's actually when he got high numbers was when he knew he was canned on nbc is and started talk being his boss. >> i think tbs knows that. >> gretchen: how long can that last? >> no one know force sure. certainly for a while he'll take pot shots at zuckor and nbc. he can be edgier on cable.

>> i really don't feel bad, he got 30 million to walk away and money to do this. he's the beneficiary of a cooperative follow-up program, that is george lopez. he had this slot, negotiated, to allow cone ton come in as he moved back. how rare is that in television? >> it's unusual, but i think he took on for the team. i think it's a good package deal. i think lopez knows that. tbs is building a line - up? >> who is his audience going to be? middle of the road or younger kids? what do you think? >> i think it will be younger kids and certainly that cocoa crowd will tune in. it's whether ex expand his base. i suggest he has tom hanks on right away to remind people of that following. >> gretchen: interesting. because there is sort of a conan cult following, but tend to be the younger demographic, which is exactly what a tv station wants in tv networks.

>> buying power. >> gretchen: apparently he's kicking off his live concert tour before he'll be on tv in november. will that help him get back out there? >> i think so. i think he's sort of a grassroots character in personality. listen, he loves to tweet. this will be a big platform for from which -- i prefer to say a perch (why don't you think it worked out with fox? >> i turn to you for that. i don't know why. i didn't think it would and neither will the people negotiating in that room. i don't know if it was the miss direction play or he had tbs in mind all along. i think he was negotiating good faith with fox, though. >> brian: was it a big enough audience, you think? >> not yet. he'll have to build that. i think that's part of the agreement. he's got to generate viewers. >> brian: one less person unemployment.

ken freeman, thanks so much, as we talk about conan, now back. all the pieces are in place. >> gretchen: thanks, ken. are you still confused how the now health care legislation will affect you? our next guest certainly, she says she's taken hundreds of calls a day from concerned citizens who are asking all kinds of questions, mostly confusing ones. >> then a hiker buried alive in an avalanche makes a desperate 9-11 call to save his life. >> hear more from this call and this amazing survival story.

>> brian: time for your shot of the morning if you negotiate by wrestling, coming up in 22 minutes. this is president obama meeting chinese president and appearing to bow. this, of course, not the first time the president has appeared to bow with some controversial bows to other foreign leaders. for example, this bow to the japanese president who is a little shorter, and to the saudi arabian king, who is about the same height. there are the bows. maybe it's just a reflex.

>> first time. >> gretchen: it may be because the president is tall. >> evidently he it doesn't bother him. this has been reported, this kind of deep bowing everywhere. but he continues to -- >> brian: he bowed in florida, too? >> yeah. >> brian: didn't he bow to the mayor in florida? >> no, in tampa. >> gretchen: a couple quick headlines. it's day two of the major nuclear summit set to begin in an hour in washington. this is president obama hailing progress made on the first day. >> brian: joining us from washington, is wendell goler. ready for day two? >> well, today, more than three dozen heads of state, government and representatives of nine other nations get down to the business of coming up with specific plans to lock away nuclear material and military installations and civilian power plants and university reactors. so it doesn't fall into the

hands of terrorist groups, the scenario the president says is the most threatening thing facing the u.s. today. yesterday before the summit officially began, several positive steps, canada and ukraine, announcing they will get rid of their highly enriched uranium, the u.s. to help ukraine to lower grades. china's president suggested he'll consider sanctions on iran, at the same time, there was some troubling news, if you will. no indication that pakistan and india are willing to end their nuclear arms race. both countries producing nighly enriched uranium and plutonium. the president aides says there is no way to discourage them and they admit that the summit may not produce any agreements that are binding. >> what we're doing here is bringing people together to affirm what i think everybody recognizes is a principle threat for all of us. namely loose nuclear material in the hands of terrorists who will

use that material. so is this a new law or a new treaty? no. but is it a concrete work plan against which all of us will be judged by our population, and frankly by each other? it absolutely is that. >> officials say what this summit will do is reaffirm the basic bargain between nuclear nations and nonnuclear ones. the u.s., russia, france, britain will protect their right to nuclear energy while continuing to reduce the threat posed by nuclear weapons, the u.s. and russia reducing their arsenals and securing loose nuclear material and it's hoped in doing that, they will build international support for cracking down on the two rogue nuclear nations of north korea and iran. back to you. >> brian: wow. they have a big agenda for today and they're also lowering expectations, saying nothing hard core will be signed. appreciate it. the rest of the headline, new jersey governor wants the head of the teachers union to be fired thanks to a memo that he

put out, joking about the governor's death. he apologized for the memo and says it was a joke. he said it was never meant to be made public. it included a prayer jokingly asking for the governor to be killed. they have been at odds even before he was elected governor. he's proposing to cut millions of dollars in aid to the schools as he tries get that budget under control. stay tuned for america's news room at the top of the hour, governor kristy will be joining bill hemmer and martha mccallum. >> thanks. the bodies of all 29 victims from last week's mine explosion, west virginia have been recovered. they're going to the medical examiner's offers for autopsies. federal investigators will enter the mine to try and figure out what caused the worst u.s. coal mining disaster since 1970. yesterday hundreds of mourners observed a moment of silence during a wreath laying ceremony at the state capitol. >> gretchen: new video of more clashes between israelis and palestinians in gaza.

overnight fighting leaves at least one person dead, three others hurt. israel's military says that they attack add group of palestinians planting explosives near the border. the jihad group says they were defending themselves when israeli forces entered gaza. >> brian: there might be another side to that story. disturbing story that parents need to hear. some middle school students are fighting with each other from one another and then posting these videos on you tube. it's happening right now in houston. school officials are trying to figure out if the fights happen on school property and who was involved. some experts say the students may be posting these videos to earn their so-called 15 seconds of fame or minutes of fame. some credibility and get credibility with their classmates. students and videos are facing suspension and their faces are not blurred out when the officials look at them. >> this is a really incredible story. a man who was on a hike in the cascade mountains in washington state, there he is, then he gets buried alive in an avalanche. somehow he was able to reach his

cell phone and call 911. listen to this tape. >> what happened exactly? >> avalanche. >> avalanche. >> where are you hurting? >> i don't care. i just really need someone to send search and rescue and try and find me. >> after five hours, ian was rescued and he talked about what was going through his head when he was completely covered in snow. watch. >> i wasn't really thinking too much about like what happened, my life and things that people often say. it was just -- i was in how can i get out of here? i figured it there has to be a way. >> he suffered hypothermia, but otherwise he's okay because of the call. >> brian: in sports, when the sports world intersects with news. roethlisberger roth won't face charges after being accused of

sexual assault by a college student. a d.a. says there is not enough evidence and the student doesn't want to pursue charges either. roethlisberger relieved. >> absolutely. wants to be the leader this team deserves, valued in the community and a role model to kids. i have much work to do to earn this trust and i'm committed to improving and showing everyone my true values. >> brian: two problems in two years with women. he's still expected to meet with nfl commissioner later this week and that should not be pretty. it wasn't the super bowl ratings some predicted, but this year's masters incredibly highly rated. it was one of the most watched golf tournaments ever. why? phil mickleson had that emotional win, very popular guy. good for a third all time for viewers. but with tiger pretty much out in the back nine, the masters had human ratings and the only one that outrated it was the 1997 masters. up 36% from last year and

analysts says combination of good weather, which forced people outdoors was part of the reason for the not incredible ratings. meanwhile, rangers visiting cleveland. top of the fifth. a bunt tip off his right knee. that hurts. but that happens. then garden with foul another one off his left knee. two batters later, it gets worse. nails him in his groin. he needed medical attention but he would be okay. couldn't get anyone to rub it. rangers go on to win bay final score of 5-2. >> walked it off. >> brian: exactly. it's tough being a catcher. >> gretchen: talk about getting iced down after that. he'd have several bruises and more. let's go off to see how j gentleman net's beer drinking has been since we visited her last time.

i'm just kidding. >> i'm doing great. let's take a look at your weather. >> gretchen: don't try this at home, kids. >> it's 46 in minneapolis. 58 in rapid city. 60 in kansas city. we have the stationary front and north of the stationary front, that's where we're seeing the cooler air across the great lakes and the new england region and then we also have a system in the west and west of that system is where we're seeing the cooler temperatures. cold enough for snow. high pressure dominating the southern plains, the central plains and the southeast where we're seeing really nice temperatures, dry conditions looking at 71 in minneapolis. that's not too bad for them. 40 in missoula. quick look at your radar. we have that frontal boundary, that's bringing showers, isolated thunderstorms, parts of the upper midwest and the great lakes from fargo to minneapolis, detroit, cleveland and pittsburgh through philadelphia and new york city. just north of that area, i think we'll see cloudy conditions.

there is our system across the rockies, bringing some snow, 6 to 12 inches easily for the northern rockies. and a quick look at your future cast. this system moves northward into canada. we watch the next system moving from the gulf of mexico, bringing showers for the central u.s. and then into texas. back to you guys. >> gretchen: good thing your day is not over. >> no kidding. nap time. >> gretchen: thanks very much. >> brian: looking back at the first hour of the show. meanwhile, straight ahead, are you confused about how the new health care legislation will affect you? you are not alone. our next guest knows, she's taking hundreds of calls a day from concerned citizens. two of the most common complaints and why dems themselves may not be able to have solutions. >> gretchen: you probably wouldn't want to go toe to toe with this guy. i need mike in the morning! he's here to talk about life in

the octagon. >> brian: mike is truly losing consciousness.

>> gretchen: couple quick headlines. the senate moves closer to extending unemployment benefits. four republicans voted with the dems to end the filibuster. the legislation would restore jobless benefits to more than 200,000 americans. democrats hope to win final approval this week, but republicans are still concerned about where the $9 billion will come from to pay for the extension. transportation secretary lahood is pushing to stop spirit airlines fee to stow luggage. he says it's outrageous and his agency will figure out a way to

stop it. chuck schumer says he's considering introducing legislation to ban such charges as well. i'm scare to do do this introduction to this next segment because it involves brian and a wrestler who is much better than he is and i have a feeling they're going to go toe to toe. >> wrestlers have no problem because they kind of wing it. but these guys really fight. he's the former ufc lightweight champion and a former well to weight champion. one of two fighters to win a title in two different weight classes and telling it all in his book, b.j. penn is the author and it's why i fight. the belt is just an accessory and it's out today. congratulations on the book and your life. >> thank you very much. >> brian: first, tell us how you got involved in ultimate fighting. >> as a kid growing up, i always used to be into boxing and love getting into fights and stuff as a kid. not that that's a good thing. as i grew older, i wasn't doing much and my father pushed me into martial arts.

>> brian: a lot of kids play ball or tag. you said, hey, come over and let's fight a little bit. you put on the gloves and you fight with your brothers in the neighborhood? >> yeah. it wasn't only me. it was all the kids from the neighborhood. i guess there is not much to do and that's what we did for fun. >> brian: you have that unbelievable success in ultimate fighting. what is it like when you hop into the octagon and the gate closes behind you? >> i'm getting pretty used to it now. but it's an awesome intense feeling. it's just what it looks like. it's pretty hair raising, i guess. >> brian: you were in abu dhabi over the weekend? >> yes. >> brian: you lost. what happened? >> i had a tough loss decision. the guy did a great job. all i can hope is to be back and be there and do my best. >> brian: when people fight, they think of, well, they're angry, they want to kill the guy, they want to knock their head off. but when you fight, how do you approach it differently than let's say a guy that gets in a fight in a bar?

>> it's much different than a fight in a bar. we're very trained. we train our techniques all day. that's all we do. this is our life. that's one of the reasons why i wrote the book. it's very misunderstood. it's misunderstood sport. this gives awe look inside to what really goes on, what goes on behind the scenes, what goes on in the fighter's heads, how the fighters react to each other, how we react to management. it's a great thing. the ufc has done a great job. many people really built this sport up and made it a legitimate sport. because of them, we all got a job. >> brian: sometimes you have to knock a guy out or choke him out to be successful? >> yes. >> brian: let's say hypothetically you and i are in the act gone. let's say they have enough money to get me in there. hold on to this a second. hypothetically, let's say we end up in a situation where you have to neutralize me you and know i'm 170 pounds of fury.

of muscle. the first thing you say is, where is the door? the second thing is, i can't get out of it. >> i'm looking at you and thinking, this guy looks like he can punch really hard. i can tell looking at you. so the first thing i would do is... . >> gretchen: one, two, three! (bell rings) brian, how many pounds do you have on him? [ laughter ] >> do you give up? >> help! someone throw a towel in. i'm going to throw my coat in, brian, you're fired. he's out. >> gretchen: oh, my gosh. brian? okay. we're going to see how brian is when we come back.

after that, brian is going to need some new health care and that's what we're going to talk about. do you have questions about the new health care legislation? you're not alone. people all over the country are concerned. guys, i'm trying to do a tv show. they want to know how this will affect them. next, some of the most common complaints. first, can you save me? >> i'm so impressed. he lasted 40 seconds. that's huge! >> gretchen: that's one way of looking at it. >> he's still breathing. well done, man. well done. all right. hey, how do you balance your books when your state is drowning in debt to the tunes of billions of dollars every year? new jersey governor talks to martha today about how he's trying to change that, what he's up against and a bit later, we will debate his ideas. it's a big story. and when is a bowel just a bowel

and when does it mean more than that. we'll talk about it in a few minutes from now.

>> brian: back on "fox & friends." a lot of americans are confused by the new health care law. specifically if and when you'll be forced to have coverage. even the democrats don't seem to know the answer. let's listen. >> we actually have not required in this law that you carry health insurance. what we're doing is that you will be in a different tax status if you carry insurance versus not carrying health insurance. so you can feel free to choose not to carry health insurance. that's just going to be reflected in the tax category that you're in on your tax return.

but there is no requirement in this law that you must carry health insurance. >> gretchen: we're joined by kerry mcclain from e health insurance.com to try and clear up all the confusion. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> gretchen: i'm not so sure you can clear up the confusion because you run a call center. right, where you are getting a lot of phone calls from very confused americans who have no idea what the heck is in this health care bill. right? >> yeah. we take thousands of calls each month and the majority of people are really calling with great questions on reform. we are seeing a few people call and they are asking whether they can get their free obama care. but for the most part, people are asking what the time line is going to be and how they can get insurance today and how it's going to impact them. >> if i have a so-called preexisting condition, can i get coverage immediately under obama care, right now in 2010? >> well, what's going to happen

in the next 90 days is there is going to be establish add federal high risk pool and that federal high risk pool is going to allow people who have been declined for a preexisting condition to get access to coverage. that's going to happen in 90 days. >> gretchen: how did you get your information? >> the majority of people -- >> gretchen: how did you get all your information to be able to explain it to people who call, because a lot of members of congress don't even know all the information in the health care reform bill. >> yeah. it's quite complicated and we've established a team to gather the information and then educate our staff on how they can explain it to the consumer. >> the high risk pool is different than insurers being obligated to actually provide that coverage. >> is that right? >> correct. that's just a temporary solution until 2014 and in 2014, that's when all adults will be eligible to apply for health insurance

without getting declined for preexisting conditions. >> gretchen: all right. do you get a lot of calls from students as well, because is that one thing, if you have a child who is under 26, immediately you can continue to have them under your health care plan? >> that's kind of the next step. in about six months, if you're at the age of 26, you can be added back to your parents' plan. the other thing that's happening in six months is if you're under the age of 18, then you'll be able to get -- you won't be declined for preexisting condition. >> gretchen: all right. so many questions. you're taking a lot of them in at e health insurance.com. thank you for being our guest. >> more "fox & friends" in two minutes. we'll see you then. thank you.

>> gretchen: tomorrow we have a big show. we have indicate gosselin who is on "dancing with the stars" and she has written a new book and kitty kelly, who has written this monstrosity